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i'm currently looking at getting a baby grand to fit into my condo, and have stumbled on what appears to be a rare little item - with virtually no literature over the www on it except for representations by the current owner.

it's a 6 octave 'waldberg' mahogany body petite grand (or baby? what is the right nomenclature?), measuring 3.5ft, and 4.2ft wide. it plays decent, but i suppose that would be attributed to the harmonics of the small room its currently housed in.

the body doesn't have the usual harpsichord bends, and at the same time, i doubt that it would be categorized as a square grand, as the strings are diagonally set.

what exactly is this?

here's what i have been informed:

1. based on the accompanying import certificate (issued by an indian trading company):

2. fitted with ivory keysi can't seem to notice any centre-joints of what i'm told is characteristic of ivories, but is this telling?

3. there are 2 parts on the front lid that appear to have been 'squared off' and resurfaced:can be unhinged and replaced with a new smoothed out piece, i know, but thoughts on what may have happened? rectification of warpage?

also for the trained eye, does this look mahogany?

the casting reads 'reg no 809901':

the owner is a real gent and appears to be sharing what he knows - nothing less, but is asking for what is an equivalent of ~gbp4k, in my home currency. i know - probably sounds steep in the uk market - where i noted the same make & model somewhere in newbury, reading, asking for gbp650 only. but then again, what is this thing valued at?

would be grateful for any help - if i do make the purchase i hope for it to be on an informed basis.

It's a very unusual piano. It's shorter than what are usually called 'petite' grands.

The price seems outrageous to me unless you want this for the fact that it is an unusual piano. Even then, at that price one would expect the action, strings, etc. to be in perfect restored condition. I doubt this piano sounds all that good as judged by the standards of most folks. The strings are simply too short. In terms of finding a musical instrument, I would think that even in an expensive market you should be able to do better than this for that kind of money.

to illustrate the market i'm in fyi - a fresh & fully reconditioned 5'1" k-kawai no.350 is gbp2.5k, which is considered a very fair, if not good, deal. sad innit..

i've also taken a relook at the post from reading - and its actually a different 7-8 octave waldberg with what appears to be a different shaped cabinet. so the price being asked would not be reflective of this petite grand?

You should think about buying a proper 5' baby grand from Australia and importing it. A decent older one sells for about a quarter of that. Would probably still be cheaper after shipping costs factored in! The mahogany case has effectively no value in the scheme of piano things. Mahogany has been very out of fashion in the furniture world for some time - your noting timber type suggests to me that you're thinking of the piano in furniture terms?. Even if you were buying it to display only, an antique mahogany cabinet would be considerably cheaper :p

my main criteria is performance and i know i want a baby g due to space constraints, however if i'm going to spend some coin i would want it to stretch to get me something different. definitely not looking for furniture

between a 911 and say a detomaso pantera for example, i'd want to invest my coin & time into something non-mainstream. i know i want speed (lets leave handling & maintenance issues out of the equation fer a minute) but i want to have a relationship with it. a balance of form to obvious functionality. to each his own i guess.

within the budget this would be more of an impulse buy if i do decide to take the plunge.